THEATER: Take a walk through 'Nature' with Emerson, Thoreau

Thursday

Sep 28, 2017 at 10:41 AMSep 28, 2017 at 10:49 AM

Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger

CONCORD - You may be used to theater where the performers enter into the audience. But it’s an entirely different experience when you walk behind them as they move from scene to scene through fields and an apple orchard.

Called a walking play, “Nature” is the story of the friendship between Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and their beliefs about nature. It’s performed today through Sunday on the grounds of the Old Manse, the Concord home owned by The Trustees of Reservations where Emerson lived and wrote his essay “Nature” and from where Thoreau launched his canoe to explore the Concord river.

“It’s like a match made in heaven,” said Tyson Forbes, who stars as Emerson and has an uncanny resemblance to the Transcendentalist who is his great-great-great grandfather. “When we walked the grounds, we could feel the energy of the place. My ancestors and nature felt palpable.”

The audience at last Saturday’s show also seemed to feel that connection, which several people called “magical” and “transporting” during the post-show conversation with the performers. The walking is pivotal, not just because Thoreau (played by Michael Wieser) and Emerson walked together to experience the natural world, but because of its effect on the audience.

“One of Emerson’s and Thoreau’s messages was to wake up, and when you get up and walk, you wake up,” said Lucinda Damon-Bach, a Salem State University teacher in the audience. “The play made people part of it.”

The show – created by TigerLion Arts of Minneapolis – is a deft and entertaining integration of ideas and drama, music and dance, that is light enough to keep children interested but substantive enough to be thought-provoking for adults.

At the start, the audience – who sat on pew-like benches and lawn chairs in front of a raised wooden platform – became a congregation, as a minister said “We call upon the spirit of nature.” The ensemble – all dressed in period clothing – sang to penny whistles and percussion, and then there was silence, followed by a meditative melody from a lone pipe.

That mix of musical energy, humor and contemplation set the tone for the play, and the varied musical accompaniment kept the audience in the moment as they moved quietly through the sites and settled into their chairs.

“When you perform outside, it’s so easy to lose the audience’s attention, so music is important to connect the threads of the story and set the mood,” said Forbes, who co-wrote the script with co-creator Samuel Elmore and Markell Kiefer, his wife and the show’s director, all Middlebury College graduates.

Drawing from speeches, essays, poems, letters and journal entries, the script includes well known statements such as, “In wilderness is the preservation of the earth,” and lesser so, such as “Contemplation of nature is essential to human health” and “Find your eternity in nature.”

Thoreau and Emerson wanted people to live in harmony with nature, and when Thoreau says “I went for a walk today. The sky through the trees caught my eye,” the audience has only to look up.

Some of the most beautiful moments came from the personification of nature, as music director Nora Long sang and played violin.

Ultimately, the play is the story of a friendship between a boisterous loner and a more staid lecturer, which is nurtured by a shared philosophy. As the story unfolds, they argue over their different views about engagement with society and embrace of technological progress. In the end, their friendship dissolves, when Emerson becomes jealous of the relationship between his wife and Thoreau, after he invited Thoreau to live with her in his home while he lectured in London.

Many moments are endearing and funny. In an orchard, a buoyant Thoreau and more restrained Emerson romped as they exchanged ideas and chomped on apples, humorously underscored by munching sound effects from the ensemble. Later, they debated inside Thoreau’s cabin – as the ensemble mimicked the squirrels and woodchucks he considered his family.

When the audience took its final walk, it followed the coffin of Thoreau, who died at age 44, to the service where Emerson, who lived to age 72, delivered the eulogy. In a poignant ending that merges times, the two – hobbling on canes through the orchard – bowed to each other as a violin and bagpipe played. Their lives ended, their visions and words live on.

Jody Feinberg may be reached at jfeinberg@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @JodyF_Ledger.

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